Tag: Legislation Update

New legislation could see businesses lose tax deductions for payments to employees and contractors. This article details this new law, and provides a checklist of how to be compliant…

BASICS

In March, legislation was passed which will deny an income tax deduction for certain payments if the associated withholding obligations are not complied with by the business making the payment. This new law commences on 1 July 2019, and provides a very strong incentive for employers to comply with their withholding obligations. Under current law, employers are entitled to a deduction for actually having made a payment to an employee or contractor – irrespective of whether they have correctly met the withholding requirements in respect of these payments. This is, the payment itself is sufficient to claim a deduction.

NEW RULES

From 1 July 2019, a deduction will no longer be allowed in relation to the following payments:

Of salary, wages, commissions, bonuses, or allowances to an employee

Of directors’ fees

To a religious practitioner

Under a labour-hire arrangement

For a supply of services – excluding supplies of goods and supplies of real properyt – where the recipient of the payment has not quoted their Australian Business Number (ABN)

….if withholding applied to the payment, and the payer was required to withhold an amount from the payment and did not withhold an amount OR did not notify the ATO when required. To be clear, deductions will only be denied where no amount has been withheld at all from the payment that attracts withholding or no notification is made to the ATO. Withholding an incorrect amount (such as from an allowance etc.) or reporting the withholding incorrectly will not result in a deduction being denied.

To finish reading this article, log in to your Members Area – May/June Newsletter page 6.

In the Budget on Tuesday, the Government announced that
it would increase the instant asset write-off threshold to $30,000 and extend
it to medium sized businesses (those with an aggregated annual turnover of less
than $50 million).

This, and the earlier change announced in January (to
extend the write-off threshold to $25,000) passed both Houses of Parliament
yesterday and is now law (subject to the formality of Royal Assent).

The amendments mean there will be three tiers in the
2018/2019 financial year:

1. $20,000
threshold for depreciable assets that are acquired and installed ready for use
before 29 January 2019. Only available for businesses with an aggregated
turnover less than $10 million.

2. $25,000 threshold for assets first used or
installed between 29 January 2019 and 2 April 2019. Only available for
businesses with an aggregated turnover less than $10 million.

3. $30,000
threshold for assets first used and installed after the 2 April budget
announcement and before 1 July 2020. Available for businesses with a turnover
of less than $50 million.

Going forward, all businesses with a turnover under $50
million are now eligible for a write-off of $30,000. This will be available
under 30 June 2020.

To get the taxation benefit of this in the current financial year, you will need to have the asset installed ready for use on or before 30 June 2019.

The first sitting of Parliament for 2019 wrapped up last week. While legislation to extend the Single Touch Payroll reporting regime to all employers passed into law (just awaiting Royal Assent), there are a couple of other measures that remain unlegislated which could impact your business. With the full Parliament only expected to sit for three more days (April 2 – 4) until an Election is called, there are now serious doubts surrounding whether these measures will pass into law. In view of this, we put forward the following suggested approach in the meantime:

Superannuation Amnesty

The legislation to enact this measure is still before the Senate. To recap, the Superannuation Guarantee Amnesty was to be available for the 12-month period from 24 May 2018 to 23 May 2019. To get the benefits of the Amnesty (set out below) employers must during this 12-month period voluntarily disclose any Superannuation Guarantee underpayments that exist in the past (going back to when Superannuation Guarantee commenced in 1992).

For an employer, the tax benefits of the Amnesty are:

* The administration component of the Superannuation Guarantee Charge (SGG) is not payable (this is a $20 per employee, per quarter, for whom there is an SG Shortfall)

* Part 7 penalties will not be applied. This can be up to 200% of the SG Charge that is payable (note that SG Charge includes the SG Shortfall that you owe to employees)

* All catch-up payments that you make during the 12-month Amnesty period will be tax deductible.

By contrast, under the current law, when superannuation has been underpaid or paid late Superannuation Guarantee Charge that must paid to the ATO is not deductible, and late contributions that an employer has made to an employee’s superannuation and has elected to offset against their SG Charge liability are also not deductible.

If an employer is contemplating disclosing past superannuation shortfalls specifically to get the benefits of the Amnesty (including claiming a deduction for your late contributions) then it may be prudent to hold off until such time that the Amnesty actually becomes law (if at all). We will keep you apprised of the passage of the legislation through Parliament. However, with only a few sitting days remaining for this Parliament, and with the Opposition opposed to this measure, there are serious doubts about it becoming law.

Irrespective of the Amnesty however, all employers should consider coming forward to disclose and pay past shortfalls to get their Superannuation Guarantee affairs in order. The Government is committing more resources to this area – including requiring Superannuation Funds to report more regularly to the ATO (at least once each month) – therefore non-complying employers may be more easily detected going forward.

Enhancing the Instant Asset Write-Off

Legislation to expand and extend the Small Business Instant Asset Write-Off is still before the House of Representatives. This Bill seeks to extend the write-off by 12 months until 30 June 2020 (currently set to expire on 30 June 2019) and increase the threshold by $5,000 to $25,000; with the increase backdated to 29 January 2019. If passed into law, this would mean that there would be two thresholds for 2018/2019 as follows:

* $20,000 (for assets installed ready for use between 1 July 2018 and 28 January 2019), and

* $25,000 (for assets installed ready for use between 29 January 2019 and 30 June 2019.

Irrespective of the whether the legislation passes into law, it is important to have perspective. You are only getting back the tax rate on the asset, not the full value of the asset. This is the same as the old law where the write-off threshold was $1,000 You don’t get any extra cash than you would otherwise have received under the old rules – you simply get it sooner. Consequently, you should not let tax distort or blur your commercial instincts – as you don’t get any extra cash than you would otherwise have under the old rules, you should continue to only buy assets that fit within your business plan.